Is This Normal?

It's 11:16pm EST on New Year's Eve. I am sitting here futzing on the Intertubez and watching the Superstar Sabotage Championship on Cutthroat Kitchen... It's the last day of the quarter and often I am scurrying to get my entry into WOTF. But no.

I got that sucker in at 4:05pm this afternoon. Yesterday at this time the story was one-third the size. And I think it's really good.

So THEN I finished writing our annual Christmas letter. Hey, it was finished in 2014, I'm good with that, considering we had a couple of missed years and had to write a 2009-2013 catch-up letter last year.

Anyway, besides basking in my end of year rush, I thought I'd share what I posted on the WOTF Forum this afternoon:

I don't know what's wrong with me. It's 16:15 EST on 31 December 2014, the last day of the current quarter, and my story for Q1 is in. That's WAY early. I usually push on towards midnight... What am I going to do with the time -- oh, wait, I have another story to get out tonight. No problem.

Also -- to the people above who mentioned recycling reedited or rewritten H-Ms from previous quarters -- this can be an excellent plan. Me, personally, I do it if I have substantially changed the story.

Of my three Finalists, the first one was very early in my submissions. But the second and third were both Quarter Finalists, what we used to call H-Ms in the Dark Ages.

Of course, I was SO SURE that my last Q4 story would win... It's not for me to say that the new Q1 entry is better than that, but it's different... and poignant. So beware. K.D. loved me -- the new guy, not so much. But this time.

This time!

(Back to the Acme Rocket Powered Typewriter, working on the NEXT brilliant Wile E. Coyote Plan for SF Domination...)

Happy New Year all you crazy kids! Wherever and Whenever you are in the world!

Dr. Phil

And my response to a comment about sending last quarter's rejection to Charles Coleman Finlay. He's guest editing a third issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. F&SF still takes only physical snail mail submissions -- except CCF takes electronic subs. So I commented:

And the Send Off Your Stories to C.C. Finlay for the new F&SF special issue e-sub period -- which just opened because Charles declared that it was New Year's in New Zealand, so it's January 1st -- is another EXCELLENT idea. ***

I am going to crush it with my brilliant story which was supposed to win Q4. (But the new Judge hates me.) (evil-grin)

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Dr. Phil

*** Seriously, we ALL go through the phases of Authorhood:Ideas.Write.Hide what you wrote from EVERYONE.Let one little story leak out into the world.Find WOTF.Write more every 90 days.More WOTF.FINALLY get around to sending stuff to other markets.Win... get paid.Repeat.